Your thoughts on Astrolgian so far?

[RageForOrderX]

Astrologian is not lacking as a healer. If they make astrologians on par with white mage then why bring a white mage when you can bring a job that has equivelent heal strength and ability to buff an entire party with the myriad of buffs the Astrologian has access.

I was playing Ravana as a WHM with an AST second healer. We did a great job together. His aspected Helios under Noctrunal Sect healed for approx. 550, while my medica healed for approx. 1500.

I'd call that a significant difference.

[Ambivalence]

Astrologian is not lacking as a healer. If they make astrologians on par with white mage then why bring a white mage when you can bring a job that has equivelent heal strength and ability to buff an entire party with the myriad of buffs the Astrologian has access.

WHM will always be the best burst/AOE/HOT healer - even if AST is buffed. WHM shines in self DPS over buffing the group.

SCH provides just as much DPS increase to a raid as AST (See math from previous posts) and can dish out WAY more healing/support. Not only does AST only have a 250 POT shield, when SCH has 350 - AST does not even have the pet embrace heals - or Rouse/POT increase.

The buffs that AST brings are not nearly strong enough to justify how much they lack in the healing dept. They either need a buff to cards or a buff to healing. I would rather see them have more to offer in the healing dept. As it is AST struggles healing level 58 dungeons. They will not be competitive as is once the newness fades.

[Violet_Magenta]

WHM will always be the best burst/AOE/HOT healer - even if AST is buffed. WHM shines in self DPS over buffing the group.

SCH provides just as much DPS increase to a raid as AST...

This 110% agree^^

I wonder how they got to the current version of astrologian - prior to the games release they said that dancing between sects would make ast OP. If that were possible I still think Ast will be lacking. Astrologian has to cast frequent heals means they are also likely giving up on dps, which the other heals can do pretty well.

[sharazisspecial]

WHM will always be the best burst/AOE/HOT healer - even if AST is buffed. WHM shines in self DPS over buffing the group.

SCH provides just as much DPS increase to a raid as AST (See math from previous posts) and can dish out WAY more healing/support. Not only does AST only have a 250 POT shield, when SCH has 350 - AST does not even have the pet embrace heals - or Rouse/POT increase.

The buffs that AST brings are not nearly strong enough to justify how much they lack in the healing dept. They either need a buff to cards or a buff to healing. I would rather see them have more to offer in the healing dept. As it is AST struggles healing level 58 dungeons. They will not be competitive as is once the newness fades.

AST needs some QoL changes.
Light speed and Synastry are underwhelming, Card cycling is alot of work that may not even reward you for the effort you have to put in, Compared to say how easy it is for Sch to just use Selene Buff.

Maybe AST was balanced around being able to cycle through both Diurnal and Nocturnal in Combat but they removed it later.

AST is pretty good with their flat damage reduction % up-time though.
SCH+AST lots of flat damage reduction + alot of extra DPS. Maybe SCH is dragging AST down?

I want to see a good SCH and a good Nocturnal AST work together.

[Ambivalence]

I want to see a good SCH and a good Nocturnal AST work together.

Since the Sheilds of SCH/AST won't stack I doubt this will be a thing. AST would be in Diurnal...(WHM) and won't be able to heal enough to allow for the SCH to DPS as is per usual in Full party settings...

[LycorisSelunis]

Since the Sheilds of SCH/AST won't stack I doubt this will be a thing. AST would be in Diurnal...(WHM) and won't be able to heal enough to allow for the SCH to DPS as is per usual in Full party settings...

their shields won't stack this is true. but the %potency in coturnal makes regular helios comparable to a whm medica. The spotshields of instant cast aspect benefic would still be useful for single targets, you would get all the bonus ast buffs, and the sch could use eos for the healing buffs and aoe regen and make actual use of the several spells they get from 50-60 to do non-shielded healing. I think it could work in a coordinated static, maybe not so hot in pugs.

[LycorisSelunis]

Everyone that is higher level than me (darn you life, not letting me play FF as much this weekend) commenting on the potency has me worried. I worry most that SE will try to buff AST and buff them too well, then swing the nerfbat so hard the class is broken. I don't want that Though SE seems to have a much better balancing act than Blizz, so we shall see.

[Miiu]

(Disclaimer: proposed changes or opinions are just gut reactions and have no math involved)
Only lvl 51 on my AST so my opinion is still lacking context. But from playing the other healer jobs it is pretty obvious that AST is lacking. I love SE for adding a job that actually has more of a support feeling to it but it doesn't seem to flow very well.
The lack in healing potential isn't made up by the card mechanics. Seeing how short the buffs and long the cooldowns are. In group content I feel more inclined to constantly spam heals and not waste any time trying to reshuffle/draw cards.

I don't mind being the weakest healer but at least give AST more interplay with their cards. Right now the cooldowns feel way too long for the RNG involved and the buff durations.
-Draw's cd should be halved. (Allow 1 Astro to stack his cards)
-Shuffle should prevent you from drawing the same card you just put away. (if the cd is kept at 90 sec)
-Spread's in combat requirement doesn't make any real sense to me. Sure you can't draw between fights and set up the perfect cardcombo but as of right now I hardly see how that system could be abused.
-Royal Road is actually fine the way it is.

I really like the idea of a support class but at the moment this feels like an inbetween that gets us nowhere. The healing potencies are too weak to and the card system that is supposed to be the hook of AST just feels tagged on. I'll keep playing the class to 60 though and see if my opinion changes but from what I have read I don't think it will. Just hope SE will take another look.

[Violet_Magenta]

...but at least give AST more interplay with their cards...

I was thinking about this too (this may be slightly off topic...)

They could actually buff the ast through the card mechanics. e.g. every time you draw/ shuffle a card the ast regens a set % of mp (aka aetherflow)

maybe give them a new card skill ("hand of fate") which allows them to sacrifice their "spread" card for a certain benefit e.g. sacrifice ewer for a 30% increase in heal potency for a few seconds (aka divine seal). maybe other sacrificed cards can give other benefits.

Perhaps give them a stance ("Celestial Host") which gives them a slight % increase in heal potency (or allow them to regen mp over time while in this stance) perhaps give the stance a negative feature like being unable to move while in the stance.

being support is all good and well, but if you can't heal your party then the support is negligible - honestly I think sch can provide better support, heals AND dps.

[File2ish]

I haven't healed any dungeons post Aurum Vale (i'm lvl 51 now, been doing story), but so far i'm loving it. Heals felt very weak at first cpmpared to WHM, but eventually became closer to the other healers in terms of effectiveness (still lesser heals of course. Had to spam Benefic 2 many times whereas on WHM cure with an occasional 2 would have been fine).

MP management seems a bit lacking though, that's really my only complaint. My understanding is our Luminiferous Aether is about the same as Shroud of Saints in terms of MP recovered. Considering AST has to burn more MP to heal an equal amount as WHM/SCH, i think the skill may need a slight boost in potency or maybe slightly reduced recast time. We can't always use the Ewer (iirc) on ourselves to help with MP cost.

Still not sure about Lightspeed either. I want to say it saved me a few times with Benefic 2 spam, but idk if it actually did or if i would have been fine without it. Excited to fet it to 60 and see how it is then.